BLU-RAY MOVIE REVIEWS

I’ve always wondered about Charlie Brown’s crush on the Little Red-Haired Girl. He’s of an age where girls are little more than a nuisance. But no matter: The Peanuts Movie’s plot centers on Charlie Brown’s stumbling attempts to convince her, and himself, that he’s something and not nothing.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/Perfectstorm.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Based on the book by Sebastian Junger, <i>The Perfect Storm</i> centers around one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. In 1991, three weather fronts collided in the North Atlantic&#151;one of them being Hurricane Grace&#151;which caused swells 100 feet tall and winds that reached 160MPH.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/polarexpress3d.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>A boy (Daryl Sabara) has lost the Christmas spirit and doesn't believe in Santa Claus. He awakes on Christmas Eve to the sound of a train arriving in his front yard. Invited to join the Polar Express on its journey to the North Pole by the train conductor (Tom Hanks), a magical world opens his eyes to the spirit of Christmas.

In one sense this film is an unexpected gift. I would never have imagined such intense, mesmerizing human drama could be culled from the story of two rival magicians trying to destroy each other personally and professionally around the turn of the century. Of course, in another sense the success of a film made from such a talented pool of people on both sides of the camera shouldn't seem surprising at all.

Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) is a beautiful and driven young woman determined to open her own New Orleans restaurant, but her plans take a detour when Prince Naveen (Bruno Compos) struts into town and is turned into a frog by the evil Dr. Facilier (Keith David). A kiss from Tiana should restore him, but the plan backfires and turns her into a frog. The two must then travel into the bayou in search of a priestess who can hopefully remove the curse.

This is the first 2D hand-drawn animated title from Disney since 2004's Home on the Range. After the mainstream birth of computer animation with 1995's Toy Story, many studios, including Disney, got the impression that families are tired of "classic" animation and only interested in computer-animated titles. Surprisingly, Disney seemed to forget that not only does a film need to look pretty, it needs to have a good story. However, the studio has redeemed itself here, even though the trailers weren't that impressive.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/proposal.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>There's no other way to put it&#151;Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is not a very nice person. In fact, co-workers, especially her personal assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), fear her because of her management style. But when Margaret discovers she's being deported back to her native Canada because she neglected her immigration paperwork, the quick-thinking executive announces that she and Andrew are engaged to be married.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/reader.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>In 1958, Hannah (Kate Winslet) has a passionate summer affair with a young neighborhood boy named Michael (David Kross and Ralph Fiennes), but then disappears with no explanation, leaving Michael emotionally scarred. Eight years later, she resurfaces as one of the defendants in a war-crimes trial stemming from her actions during World War II. Michael realizes he has information that can set her free and must decide whether or not to save her.

Leading a fur expedition in the early 1800s, frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is left for dead by one of his companions who is afraid of being attacked by Native Americans. Somehow Glass survives and begins to hobble back toward civilization, facing many obstacles, looking to exact revenge.

In 1969, Americans first went to the moon. The challenges were daunting, including finding and training the men who would make those early, dangerous, pioneering probes into near-earth space—men who had, in the words of the Thomas Wolfe book on which this 1983 movie was based, “the right stuff.”

This is the compelling story of those first Mercury astronauts, who paved the way for that “One giant leap for mankind” moment. It’s also the story of uber test pilot Chuck Yeager—never an astronaut but the first man to break the sound barrier.

When high-school baseball coach Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid) was looking for a way to inspire his perennially losing team to win, he decided to issue a challenge they couldn't refuse. If they made it to the district playoffs, he would try out for a major-league baseball team. Fortunately for Morris, his team fulfilled their part of the bargain, and he went to the tryout in which his fast ball was clocked at 98 mph! It wasn't long before Jim found himself pitching for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as a 35-year-old rookie. The best part of the story is that it actually happened in 1999.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/403rookie.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>When high-school baseball coach Jim Morris (Dennis Quaid) was looking for a way to inspire his perennially losing team to win, he decided to issue a challenge they couldn't refuse. If they made it to the district playoffs, he would try out for a major-league baseball team. Fortunately for Morris, his team fulfilled their part of the bargain, and he went to the tryout in which his fast ball was clocked at 98 mph! It wasn't long before Jim found himself pitching for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as a 35-year-old rookie. The best part of the story is that it actually happened in 1999.

Writer/director Wes Anderson’s artsy comedies are so distinct, you’d never mistake a single frame of his movies for anyone else’s. 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums showcases many of his hallmarks and themes: a mixed family of blood and adopted relatives separating and then banding together to overcome collective dysfunction, oddly brilliant characters whose clothes are identity uniforms, a simultaneous embracing and lampooning of academia, a labyrinthine set that functions like a cross between a playhouse and a fort, and a nice role for the great character actor Seymour Cassel. It’s Anderson’s most polarizing film in terms of accessibility, but it’s also his funniest.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/rundown.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, stars as Beck, a bounty hunter sent to the Amazon jungle to fetch Travis (Seann William Scott), the son of his wealthy boss. With a $250,000 bounty on his head, Travis is Beck's meal ticket to his dream of opening his own restaurant.